October 12, 2006

Kimmel Profile

In a (clarification mine: June 2003 article for the journal American Behavioral Scientist, entitled Adolescent Masculinity, Homophobia, and Violence: Random School Shootings, 1982-2001) Michael Kimmel, Ph.D., found that nearly all 29 school shootings that occurred between 1992 and 2001 were carried out by heterosexual male teenagers in rural "red state" communities who had been mercilessly tormented and bullied because peers perceived them as being bookish, unaggressive, and unmasculine. All were in communities that tolerated aggressive harassment to compel masculinity in boys, and all chose powerful weapons -- shotguns, assault rifles -- as weapons.